Halep battles into final four of WTA event
Forgotten former world No.1 Simona Halep has given a blunt assessment of her serve after advancing to the final four of the WTA tournament in Melbourne on Friday.
The Romanian, who is now ranked 20, battled to a 6-2 5-7 6-4 win over Swiss veteran Viktorija Golubic and said she felt she was her own worst enemy in a marathon match on Rod Laver Arena.
"Nothing was working today," Halep said in her on-court interview.
"My serve was s**t, it really was, and I fought with myself a lot and found it difficult to control my emotions but she put me in this situation and put pressure on me.
"But if you want to win, you don't give up."
The statistics backed up Halep's evaluation, with the two-time grand slam winner only finding the mark with 58 per cent of her first serves while delivering 11 double faults.
She also made 52 unforced errors - 10 more than Golubic, who is ranked world No.43.
Halep looked like she was headed for a comfortable win after cruising through the first set and taking a 4-2 lead in the second.
But she appeared to be hampered by a back injury as her serve started to misfire, allowing Golubic back into the match.
Halep served for the match at 5-4 but was unable to close it out.
Both players struggled to hold serve in the third, trading breaks.
Despite the service wobbles, it was a high-quality exchange in the deciding set, with Halep showing her class in the big moments.
Halep, who was an Australian Open finalist in 2018 and quarter-finalist last year, will face China's Qinwen Zheng for a spot in the final.
Defending Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka had few problems getting by Andrea Petkovic to book her spot in the final four, winning 6-1 7-5.
She will play Veronika Kudermetova, who beat Anastasia Potapova 6-2 4-6 6-0.
